Woman, 89, beaten to death

always an open house: Police officers leave the scene , home at Railway Road in Siparia yesterday. —Photo: DEXTER PHILIP

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AN 89-year-old Siparia woman was bludgeoned to death with a stone yesterday morning at her home by a 26-year-old Princes Town man who relatives and neighbours said was either "demon-possessed" or a drug addict.

Ann Corrion, also known as "Tanty Ivy", was attacked as she sat in the porch of her home at Railway Road.

Around 8.30 a.m. police found the suspect in the front yard of the house with his clothes drenched in blood.

He appeared disoriented and did not speak to police, an officer said.

They said the suspect also killed a chicken and ate its raw flesh, and ripped apart Corrion's pet parrot.

Corrion, a mother of two, came to Trinidad from Grenada in the 1950s.

A relative of the suspect and the man stayed at Corrion's house for several weeks last December.

A relative of Corrion, who requested anonymity, said the suspect came to Corrion's home on Friday.

"Around 6.30 p.m. he was quarrelling and talking by himself in the road. My mother was going to call the police but Tanty Ivy told her not to. She used to pray and calm him down."

The suspect spent last Friday night at Corrion's house, and yesterday morning again displayed strange behaviour.

A neighbour said: "Around half past seven (Saturday) I heard him pelting stones. There were children sitting in the gallery with her (Corrion). He went up in the gallery and she told the children to go. He took a stone and knocked her out. She didn't bawl or anything. She fell and he was just bashing her head."

Corrion's relative said the suspect had visited several spiritual people and was told that he was demon-possessed, while neighbours said he smoked marijuana.

Last December, the relative said the suspect was acting erratically and four men subdued him.

"He was lighting a fire in the gallery (of Corrion's house) and said he was burning the jumbie. It took four of us to hold him down and we tied his hands with rope and his feet with chains. He burst through all of that."

National boxer Kim "Bonecrusher" Quashie, a neighbour of the deceased, said Corrion was a kind and generous person, who opened her house to numerous people. Quashie said the late national boxer Giselle Salandy was 12 years old when she went to live with Corrion.

Quashie said: "Tanty Ivy was known throughout the village for her generosity. She loved to cook and she loved to have people in her house. She liked to make peace. I told her 'your kindness would kill you'."

Joel Eligon, 28, who was Corrion's adopted son said yesterday: "She loved to help people. I came to live with her when I was two years old. I used to call her 'Ma'. She was the only mother I knew."

The suspect was taken by police to the Siparia Health Centre where he was treated for minor injuries.

He remained in police custody at the Siparia CID last night.

Last Monday, a Rousillac mother of four was bludgeoned to death with a wrench in her house by a 73-year-old man who was diagnosed with depression.

Myrna Sahibram, of Grant's Trace, was beaten on her head with a wrench while she slept on a couch.

The suspect was expected to be charged with murder and appear in court tomorrow.